SINGAPORE – Dive into a disco ball pit, watch a light projection show on the National Gallery’s stately facade or interact with a colorful structure that responds to touch – these are a few of the highlights of the first Singapore National Gallery Light to Night Festival, which is organised to celebrate the gallery’s first birthday from Nov 25 to Dec 4 at the Civic District.

“The gallery Light to Night festival is our way of celebrating our anniversary with our visitors, with the many specially planned programmes to create a unique art experience for each individual and hopefully inspire them to explore and develop a deeper interest in art and its history,” explained the CEO of National Gallery Singapore Chong Siak Ching.

As part of the celebration, the gallery will have extended hours for the first time till 3am on weekends. Director, Audience Development & Engagement Suenne Megan Tan described it as “a symbolic gesture, as a gift to celebrate the people on our first birthday. “We wanted to bring the entire family together – where they can spend a whole day here, and even for people who may be working, they can come after hours and continue to stay on till late,” she added.

The highlight of the festival is a disco ball pit, a play area filled with up to 170,000 balls to bring the element of fun to their gallery.

“Sometimes museums can have a fairly serious connotation and people may feel a bit apprehensive about stepping in, so we want to kind of rebound that whole idea of what being in a museum is like,” said Tan.

To keep the fun element going, the City Hall Chamber on level three will have an interactive colorful structure designed by Australia’s Creative Technology Agency S1T2 for visitors to interact with the exhibit and watch the inter-connected orbs change colours. Students from LASALLE College of the Arts have also prepared a display of light with support from fashion jewelry Swarovski where multitude of suspended Swarovski crystals will be hanged from the ceiling.

Of course, a night festival will not be complete without a light show. After the positive response for the light show during the Gallery’s opening weekend last year, there will be another projection show this year by Australian Spinifex Group. The group will use the façade of the City Hall building as its canvas to present a colorful light projection show with elements like art and machines.

Foodies are not left out. To whet your appetite, there will be a festival food street held over the two weekends where vendors such as Momolato and Owl Cafe will be hawing their wares. There is also live entertainment from acoustic live band The JumpStart and musical collective Bloco Singapura, as well as indie-electronic duo .gif taking the stage. Look out too for a special performance from Sing! China runner-up Nathan Hartono and fellow music producer Evan Low who also goes by the moniker Evanturetime. And as you know, wherever Nathan Hartono goes, the Milo trucks will follow, and a Milo truck will be deployed on Dec 2 along St. Andrew Road for free Milo Peng. Now that is what we call a national celebration.

Gallery Light to Night Festival will run from Nov 25 to Dec 4 2016. Admission to the Festival is free. St Andrew’s and Fullerton Road will be closed during the two weekends from 4pm till midnight. Visitors may go to their official page, National Gallery Singapore for more information.